Ventilating ceiling construction



Feb. 25, 1969 M. J. KODARAS 3,429,250

VENTILATING CEILING CONSTRUCTION Filed April 17, 1962 Sheet of 3 INVENTOR. Al/(AMAZ J 10045246 144, MM wad Feb. 25, 1969 J KODARAS 3,429,250

VENTILATING CEILING CONSTRUCTION Filed April 17, 1962 v Sheet 3 of 5 i I 2 42 g, 33 INVENTOR. 6W! 41/04 454 J #00424;

Feb. 25, 1969 M- J. KODARAS VENTILATING CEILING CONSTRUCTION Sheet i of3 Filed April 17, 1962 v vw B s m 5 0 2 M E a w; r y m M ilnited States Filed Apr. 17, 1962, Ser. No. 188,189 US. Cl. 9s 40 7 Claims Int. Cl. F24f 7/00, 13/08; 1104b /54 The present invention relates to ventilating ceiling constructions, more particularly of the type in which the space between the main ceiling and a suspended ceiling, below the main ceiling is a substantially air-tight plenum, through which air may be introduced to the room by Way of novel ventilating elements, which are substantially in overlapping relation with the edges of one or two adjacent edges of successive panels of the suspended ceiling.

The term panel as used in the claims is generic to the elements of a suspended ceiling whether rectangular or square, commonly called a panel or tile respectively.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide a relatively simple ventilating ceiling construction of relatively low cost in which standard panel or tile construction and suspension members therefore may be used with but a relatively simple and inexpensive modification of the panel or tile for flow of air through the suspended ceiling.

Among other objects are to provide a ventilating ceiling construction of the above type in which the ventilating structure by which air is propelled from the plenum to the room or conversely is carried by one panel or between neighboring panels and is readily adjustable to control at will the degree of ventilation or air flow between those edges of any pair of neighboring panels that extend longitudinally thereof and are parallel to the panel carrying members.

It is a feature of the invention to provide a series of spaced air-ports or apertures through the thickness of each panel adjacent one edge thereof, which may be notches in the edge of the panel and to associate therewith and adjustable slider which may be of metal or plastic and which has notches or orifices therein distributed longitudinally thereof, corresponding to the notches or apertures in the panel and with intervening closure portions of width greater than the Width of the notches or apertures in the panel, whereby the slidable adjustment of the slider will serve wholly to close the notches or apertures in the panel or partly or completely to open them, as desired for desired ventilation.

In the accompanying drawings in which are shown one or more of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of one embodiment of the invention viewed from above;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary detail perspective view on an enlarged scale of one of the tiles or panels viewed from above;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view with parts broken away of a vent control slider;

FIG. 4 is a view in cross-section showing the assembly of the slider with respect to the panel;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment of panel;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the corresponding control slider;

FIG. 7 is a view in cross-section of the assembly of panel and control slider of FIGS. 5 and 6;

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of another embodiment, looking down at the suspended ceiling, of ceiling tile arrangement;

3,429,25d Patented Feb. 25, 1969 FIG. 9 is a plan view of the slider used with the embodiment of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a plan view looking up at the suspended ceiling, showing the slider of FIG. 9 in position;

FIG. 11 is a detail sectional view on an enlarged scale taken along line 1111 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a view similar to FIG. 11 taken along line 1212 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a view similar to FIG. 11 taken along line 13-43 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 14 is a view similar to FIG. 11 taken along line 14-14 of FIG. 8; and

FIG. 15 is a fragmentary perspective view with parts broken away of one of the panels of FIG. 8.

Referring now to the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4, FIG. 1 shows the ceiling C broken away in large part and the suspended ceiling S therebelow with inverted T carrying members 10 extending longitudinally of the as sembly of panels or tiles, each carrying member being hung from the ceiling as by wires w. Some or preferably all of the panels 14 which may be of the usual acoustical or non-acoustical ceiling board, have notches 15 in spaced relation, illustratively equally spaced at least along one edge thereof, which notches extend through the entire thickness of the panel. Between consecutive notches 15 the panel presents lands 16 which are desirably wider than the notches.

It will be understood that instead of notches there may be apertures corresponding to the innermost portions of the depth of the notches, and these spaced slightly from the edge of the panel.

Associated with each notched edge, or the like of the panel is a ventilating adjustment slider 17 which may be of any desired rigid material such as sheet metal or plastic. The slider which illustratively is substantially U-shape, is desirably of length slightly less than that of the associated panel. It presents an upright Wall 18 of height but slightly greater than the thickness of the panel. The slider presents a lower horizontal wing 19 upon which the edge of the panel rests, as shown in FIG. 4, which wing 19 is of width somewhat less than the depth of the notch 15. The panel also presents an upper Wing 21 parallel to Wing 19 overlying the edge of the panel 14. The slider has notches 22 in its upper wing 21 of Width preferably slightly greater than that of the notches 15 in the panel. The lands 23 between successive notches 22 in the slider 17 are of width considerably greater than the width of the notches.

The slider in the embodiment shown in FIGS 1 to 4 and herein described, encloses the edge portion of the corresponding panel, with upright wall 18 engaging the end portion 24 of the panel at the notched edge, the wing 21 overlying the panel and being of width to cover the entire depth of the panel notches and to cover the apertures if these are used instead of notches, and the lower wing 19 underlying the edge portion of the panel.

In order to combat leakage of air from the plenum, between the slider 17 and the supporting member 10, the slider is desirably equipped with a fin 25 secured to the Wing 21 and protruding slightly therebeyond and engaging the vertical wall 26 of member 10 as shown in FIG. 4. The fin 25 may be an integral part of the wing 21 or it may be a flexible member adhesively attached along the entire length thereof.

In addition, since the free ends 27 of lands 23 extend past the inner ends of the notches 15 and rest on the panel as shown in FIG. 4, leakage is minimized when the slider 17 is moved to close the notches 15.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 5 to 7, the panel 14 is substantially the same as that of FIGS. 1 to 4 except that the edge of the panel 14', notched as at 15, also has a longitudinal kerf 28 extending the length thereof, across 3 the width, preferably of each of the lands 16' and desirably midway of the thickness of the panel 14'.

The control slider 17' in this embodiment is substantially the same as control slider 17 except that its upright wall 18 is of height substantially equal to one-half the thickness of panel 14.

The distance between the wings 19' and 21 of the control slider 17 is such that when the wing 19' fits into the kerf 28, the wing 21' will rest on the top surfaces of the panel as shown in FIG. 7.

The adjustment in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4 and 5 to 7 may readily be effected by lifting the panel olf the supporting member and then moving the control sliders 17, 17 t the desired position.

In the embodment of FIGS. 8 to 15, the adjacent longitudinal edges 31 of contiguous standard kerfed and cutback panels 32 are in edge to edge engagement with each other, as shown in FIG. 13. These adjacent edges 31 have registering notches 33 desirably quite narrow, illustratively but inch in depth, so that the combined width of two registering notches of contiguous panels is 2 inch or thereabouts. The length of these notches may be as desired.

The adjustable vent control slider 34 (FIG. 9) in this embodiment is desirably a metal, plastic or fiber plate, illustratively about inch wide, which has one or more longitudinal slots 35 therein along its length midway of its width, desirably wider than the combined widths of the registering notches 33 in contiguous panels 32, each slot being of length somewhat greater than the length of the notches 33 in the edges of contiguous panels.

The slider plate 34 lies in the kerfs 36, one-half in the kerf 36 in the panel 32 to the left of the slider and the other half in the kerf 36 in the panel to the right of the slider, as shown in FIG. 12, for example. Depending upon the adjustment of the slider plate 34, by means of a tool inserted in the opening 37 at the end of the plate 34, the plate may be moved and the air vent determined by the registering slot 35 and notches 33 may be closed, widely opened, or partially opened to the extent desired for controlling the flow of air from the plenum to the room or conversely as the case may be.

The panels 32 may be suspended as shown in FIG. 14 by merely inserting the Wings 38 of the supporting member 39 in the kerf portion 41 at the side edge 42. of the panels.

It will thus be seen that the present invention in its various embodiments is concerned with a ventilating ceiling of simpler and less costly construction than that of my prior application Ser. No. 76,711, filed Dec. 19, 1960, now lPatent No. 3,103,868, issued Sept. 17, 1963 and of adequate effectiveness for many purposes.

As many changes could be made in the above constructions, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a ventilating ceiling construction of the type having a main ceiling and a ceiling suspended below the main ceiling defining a plenum chamber between the main and the suspended ceiling, said suspended ceiling comprising a series of rectangular panels in side by side relation, inverted T supports upon which rest edges of panels of the suspended ceiling, at least some of said panels having air passages therethrough near the longitudinal edges thereof in spaced relation, with lands between the passages, said panels having kerfs at least along the edges thereof having said passages and control venting sliders, U-shaped in cross-section, the legs of the U forming parallel wings and the bottom of the U forming a wall between said wings, the lower wing being lodged in the kerf and the upper wing overlying the edge of the corresponding panel, said lower wing being of width less than that of the upper wing and of width less than the depth of the air passage, said upper Wing having a series of spaced apertures, movable into and out of registry with said passages for control of the air through said passages.

2. In a ventilating ceiling construction of the type having a main ceiling and a ceiling suspended below the main ceiling, defining a plenum chamber between the main and the suspended ceiling, said suspended ceiling comprising rectangular panels, inverted T support having means for supporting the edges of the panels of the suspended ceiling, each of said panels having passages near the edges thereof and extending through the thickness of the panels, said passages comprising notches in uniformly spaced relation in the longitudinal edges of the panels, venting sliders, slidably adjustable in position and carried by a longitudinal edge portion of at least one of each pair of two contiguous panels, each of said sliders being U-shaped and having a pair of legs straddling the edge portion of the panel, one of said legs having a series of spaced apertures, movable into and out of registry with the passages, thereby to control the venting passages between the plenum and the room, depending on the setting of said sliders, the other of said legs being of width less than that of the first named leg and of depth less than the depth of the notches in the edges of said panels.

3. In a ventilating ceiling construction of the type having a main ceiling and a ceiling suspended below the main ceiling, defining a plenum chamber between the main [and suspended ceiling, said suspended ceiling comprising rectangular panels, inverted T supports having means for supporting the edges of the panels of the suspended ceiling, each of said panels having passages near the edges thereof and extending through the thickness of the panels, said passages comprising notches in uniformly spaced relation in the longitudinal edges of the panels, venting sliders, slidably adjustable in position and carried by a longitudinal edge portion of at least one of each pair of two contiguous panels, each of said sliders being substantially U-shaped, the legs of the U-shaped slider forming wings extending along the edge portions of both the lower and upper face of the panel, the bottom of the U forming a vertical wall between the wings and engaging an end of a panel and closing the ends of the notches, one of said legs having a series of spaced apertures movable into and out of registry with said notches and the other of said legs being of width less than that of the first named leg and of depth less than the depth of the notches in the edges of said panels, the upper edge of said vertical wall having an outwardly extending fin engaging the vertical portion of the T support to check air leakage between the slider and the T support.

4. In a ventilating ceiling having a plurality of assembled unitary ceiling panels with air-passing openings in the panels and depending means for mounting said panels which means present horizontal positioning flanges for edges of the panels, the improvement in which the openings are located in the vicinity of a flange-positioned edge, the innermost edge of the opening in a panel being located inwardly from the corresponding positioning flange, said opening extending outwardly from said innermost edge at least as far as said flange, and a slide-valve comprising a channel-shaped member encompassing at least a portion of the thickness of said flange-positioned edge of a panel, a side wall of said channel-shaped member having a portion to close said opening in the panel and having an opening to register with at least a portion of the opening in the panel, said channel-shaped memher being positioned for and limited to longitudinal movernent parallel to said flange-supported edge to move said opening in the side wall into and out of said register with the opening in the panel.

5. In a ventilating ceiling having a plurality of assert-r bled unitary ceiling panels with air-passing openings in the panels and depending means for mounting said panels which means presents horizontal positioning flanges for edges of the panels, the improvement in which the openings are located in the vicinity of a flange-positioned edge, the innermost edge of the opening in a panel being located inwardly from the corresponding positioning flange, said opening extending outwardly from said innermost edge at least as far :as said flange, and a slide-valve comprising a channel-shaped member encompassing the thickness of said flange-positioned edge of a panel, a side wall of said channel-shaped member being slidable on said positioning flange, and said side wall having a portion to close said opening in the panel and having an opening to register with at least a portion of the opening in the panel, said channel-shaped member being positioned for and limited to longitudinal movement parallel to said flangesupported edge to move said opening in the side wall into and out of said register with the opening in the panel.

6. In a ventilating ceiling having a plurality of assembled unitary ceiling panels With air-passing openings in the panels and means for providing horizontal positioning flanges for edges of the panels, the improvement in which the openings are located in the vicinity of a flange-positioned edge, the innermost edge of the opening in a panel being located inwardly from the corresponding positioning flange, said opening extending outwardly from said innermost edge at least as far as said flange, and a slide-valve comprising a channel-shaped member encompassing at least a portion of the thickness of said flange-positioned edge of a panel, a side wall of said channel-shaped member having a portion to close said opening in the panel and having an opening to register with at least a portion of the opening in the panel, said channel-shaped member being positioned for and limited to longitudinal movement to move said opening in the side Wall into and out of said register with the opening in the panel.

7. In combination a unitary ceiling panel having an opening therethrough from face to face in the vicinity of an edge thereof, for said opening a movable slide-valve, said slide-valve in functioning position being limited to movement in a plane parallel to the plane of the panel and parallel to said edge, and means so to limit said movement comprising said panel, a portion of said slidevalve in functioning position being outside of said panel edge, and said slide-valve in non-functioning position of the panel being removable from the panel by movement laterally of the slide-valve and laterally away from said edge of the panel at right angles to its functional sliding direction, said slide-valve having an opening to register on sliding the slide-valve with at least a portion of the opening in the panel and having a portion to close said opening in the panel on sliding said slide-valve.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,781,557 2/1957 Ericson 9840 2,807,993 10/1957 Ericson 98-40 3,069,991 12/ 1962 Ericson 98-40 ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner.

W. A. WAYNER, Assistant Examiner.

U .8. Cl. XJR. 

2. IN A VENTILATING CEILING CONSTRUCTION OF THE TYPE HAVING A MAIN CEILING AND A CEILING SUSPENDED BELOW THE MAIN CEILING, DEFINING A PLENUM CHAMBER BETWEEN THE MAIN AND THE SUSPENDED CEILING, SAID SUSPENDED CEILING COMPRISING RECTANGULAR PANELS, INVERTED T SUPPORT HAVING MEANS FOR SUPPORTING THE EDGES OF THE PANELS OF THE SUSPENDED CEILING, EACH OF SAID PANELS HAVING PASSAGES NEAR THE EDGES THEREOF AND EXTENDING THROUGH THE THICKNESS OF THE PANELS, SAID PASSAGES COMPRISING NOTCHES IN UNIFORMLY SPACED RELATION IN THE LONGITUDINAL EDGES OF THE PANELS, VENTING SLIDERS, SLIDABLY AJUSTABLE IN POSITION AND CARRIED 